"You Got What It Takes" is a 1959 single by

Marv Johnson Marvin Earl Johnson (October 15, 1938 – May 16, 1993) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. He was influential in the development of the Motown style of music, primarily for the song "Come to Me (Marv Johnson so ...

. In the US it reached number 2 on the Black Singles

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

, and number 10 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 early in 1960. In the UK Singles Chart it reached a high of number 7. The original recording of "You Got What It Takes" was by Bobby Parker on Vee-Jay 279 in 1958. Parker claims to have written the song, and his name is on the 1958 recording, but later versions credit Berry Gordy, Gwen Gordy, Billy Davis, and sometimes Marv Johnson. Parker told the ''Forgotten Hits'' newsletter in 2008:

I wrote 'You've Got What It Takes,' that was MY song. Even had the Paul Hucklebuck Williams band playing on it behind me... And then Berry Gordy just stole it out from under me, just put his name on it. And what could I do? I was just trying to make a living, playing guitar and singing, how was I going to go on and fight Berry Gordy, big as he was, and Motown Records? There wasn't really nothing I could do about it - it was just too big and I didn't have any way to fight them...

Other notable recordings

* A contemporary cover version by

Johnny Kidd and the Pirates Johnny Kidd & the Pirates (known simply as The Pirates after their reunion) were an English rock band led by singer/songwriter Johnny Kidd. Their musical journey spanned the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, during which they achieved considerabl ...

entered the UK charts the same week in 1960 as Marv Johnson's version and reached number 25. * A 1967 cover of the song by

the Dave Clark Five The Dave Clark Five, also known as the DC5, were an English rock and roll band formed in 1958 in Tottenham, London. Drummer Dave Clark was the group's leader, producer and co-songwriter. In January 1964, they had their first UK top-ten single, ...

reached number 7 in the United States and number 28 in the UK. * A

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

cover by

Showaddywaddy Showaddywaddy are a rock and roll group from Leicester, England. They specialise in revivals of hit songs from the 1950s and early 1960s, while also issuing original material. They have spent 209 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, and have had 10 ...

reached number 2 in the UK in 1977. *

Anne Murray Morna Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a retired Canadian country, pop and adult contemporary music singer who has sold over 55 million album copies worldwide during her over 40-year career. Murray has won four Grammys including the Grammy ...

included a cover of the song on her 1979 album New Kind of Feeling.

References

External links

List of cover versions of "You Got What It Takes"
at SecondHandSongs.com 1959 songs 1959 singles 1960 singles 1967 singles 1977 singles Marv Johnson songs Johnny Kidd & the Pirates songs The Dave Clark Five songs Showaddywaddy songs Songs written by Berry Gordy Songs written by Billy Davis (songwriter) Songs written by Gwen Gordy Fuqua Song recordings produced by Berry Gordy United Artists Records singles {{1950s-R&B-song-stub